On Sunday, around 40 former employees of Bartell Drugs gathered in Seattle’s Woodland Park to reminisce about the once-great retailer and ponder its future.
Many had retired during what some called Bartell’s “Golden Era,” years before the iconic Seattle-area drugstore chain was sold to Rite Aid, in 2020. Yet few seemed surprised that things hadn’t gone well since then, with more than a third of Bartell’s 67 locations shuttered and Rite Aid itself filing for bankruptcy in October.
Rite Aid’s financial struggles were well-known, and the two companies were mismatched in everything from corporate culture to customer service.
“I thought it would probably end up here,” said Cindy Banks, who worked in the now-closed Tukwila Bartell Drugs for 20 years before retiring in 2012, of the bankruptcy.
“It’s sad to see how it went down, but I don’t think any of us was shocked,” added Lisa-Maria Sonia, who left Bartell in 2017 after nearly eight years as a manager and who helped organize Sunday’s picnic.
But Banks, Sonia and others gathered Sunday said they had little idea what to expect next for Bartell Drugs — or even whether the former employer many still described as “family” would be around much longer.
Some clarity on those questions may be coming this week.
On Thursday, a bankruptcy court in New Jersey is set to consider the “joint plan of reorganization” — essentially, Rite Aid’s strategy to exit bankruptcy, pay its many creditors and return to profitability.
Though it’s uncertain whether the plan will be approved, the current version appears to envision a future for Bartell Drugs.
All 41 of the Bartell locations still listed on the company website are also on the list of 1,572 Rite Aid and Rite Aid-owned locations across the country that the company intends to operate post-bankruptcy, according to documents filed in May. The list also included around 99 Rite Aid locations across Washington, although since May, Rite Aid has filed documents for what may be several additional closures.
Rite Aid has characterized the shuttered locations — around 530 since October — as either underperforming or overly costly, according to court filings and company statements.
“Arguably, those that are left, and which will form the core of [Rite Aid’s] ongoing business, should be the better performing stores,” said Seattle attorney Karen Overstreet, a retired bankruptcy judge in the Western District of Washington.
But plenty of questions and caveats remain. In a filing last week, for example, Rite Aid mentions of “a successful emergence from” bankruptcy with around 400 fewer store leases than were contained in the May document, although it’s unclear whether or how that would affect to the ultimate store count.
As well, at some Bartell stores that appear to have made the cut, customers and employees say, shelves aren’t fully stocked. Some current employees blame that on supplier concerns over Rite Aid’s financial prospects.
“There are certain shippers, both locally and nationally, that are not shipping due to the bankruptcy,” said a longtime Bartell employee who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to comment.
Until the court approves the reorganization plan, the employee said, some suppliers don’t “want to extend credit to us.”
Rite Aid did not respond to requests for comment.
But former Bartell employees at Sunday’s picnic were happy to offer their opinions.
Some were dismayed at reports of a $20 million payout to Rite Aid CEO Jeffrey Stein, who was brought in to oversee Rite Aid’s reorganization and whose months of cuts and closures had left remaining staff stressed and fearful their store was next.
“They need to pay out the employees,” said Jena Bland, who worked at Bartell for 30 years and now drives for King County Metro Transit. “They really should get something for hanging in there.”
And even if Rite Aid is done closing Bartell locations, some former employers were doubtful surviving stores can succeed as anything like an independent Bartell brand. Stores may have the Bartell logo, but not the “secret sauce,” as some called it Sunday, that let Bartell stand out from other drugstores almost since its founding in Seattle in 1890.
In particular, former employees said, Rite Aid has cut back too much on staffing and has dropped a Bartell customer service model that required staff to cheerfully greet every customer and personally help them find whatever they needed.
“You couldn’t just say it was Aisle 5,” recalled Velma Evenhus, who worked at Bartell for nearly 23 years until 2022. “You physically walked the customer to the product.”
The surviving stores “are not really Bartells anymore,” added Banks, the former Tukwila store worker. Though Banks now lives in Florida, she stops by Bartell stores on her regular visits.
Nor has Rite Aid kept up with the way the old Bartell Drugs celebrated its employees — not least the old company picnics. Many were held at Woodland Park and featured catered food and games and were attended by top executives, including George Bartell and Jean Bartell Barber, grandchildren of company founder George Bartell Sr., former employees said
“Just the way they treated you — I mean, you truly felt like you were part of the family,” recalled Evenhus.
Still, no one at Sunday’s gathering appeared to blame the Bartell family for selling the chain to Rite Aid.
Brick-and-mortar retail had been upended by competitors such as Amazon. Drugstore profits were being squeezed by pharmacy benefit managers, which now handle most drug insurance reimbursements.
Bartell itself had been struggling following years of ambitious expansion, and was especially hard hit by the pandemic, which hammered its highest performing stores in downtown Seattle, former employees said.
Even if the Bartell family hadn’t sold to Rite Aid, “they would have had to completely revamp their whole business model and cut Bartells in half,” said Sonia, the picnic’s co-organizer.
Still, even if they feared for Bartell’s future, the attendees seemed delighted to be back together. As they crowded together for a group photo, Sonia suggested doing another picnic in two years.
In the meantime, she urged everyone to remain in touch and think of each other as a family and a resource. “You have a really good network here, too,” she said.
The gathering brought talk of other opportunities, as well.
Rite Aid bought Bartell for just $95 million, which many experts reflected the smaller firm’s financial challenges.
But in some ways, the tables have turned. Since the bankruptcy, Rite Aid’s share price has plunged — on Friday, before the picnic, shares were just a tenth of a cent, meaning the entire company was worth less than $100,000. On Sunday afternoon, some former Bartell employees joked about buying Rite Aid.
Joanna Gillespie, another former Bartell employee, said she went so far as to see where she might buy the stock, but said was unable to find a brokerage that listed Rite Aid stock.
Which was too bad, Gillespie later said. By Tuesday, she said, “it was back up to 15 cents a share.”